


All Things Considered

by Buffy606



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-28
Updated: 2019-10-11
Packaged: 2020-10-29 18:49:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,192
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20801255
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Buffy606/pseuds/Buffy606
Summary: All things considered; Jenny didn’t mind being a vampire.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> My dudes. It has been a *minute* since I wrote any fanfic. It's been a fun time getting back in! I was inspired by this absolutely gorg Calendiles content we are getting in the 2019 Buffy Boom reboot. However, this fic takes place in the original canon at the beginning of season 3. The major change is that Angelus sired Jenny in "Passion" rather than killing her.

All things considered; Jenny didn’t mind being a vampire. Sure, her diet now consisted of scraps from the butcher’s shop, her taste in clothes had taken a serious turn into recreating _The Cranberries_ at every opportunity, and her online occult consultation business was slow starting, but it was better than the alternative. Which was just a slight case of “Angelus deciding to snap her neck just to prove how worthless she was.” His last second decision to turn her so that she could torment the Scoobies had been a blessing. it just took months - and the discovery of a yellow disk by a promising red-headed witch - to get there.

Jenny took a swig of pig’s blood from her mug as she curled into herself on the couch, continuing to monitor the extreme lack of hits her occult web page was getting.

“Come on, how is this not picking up globally, let alone in _Sunnydale_,” she said to herself with frustration as she clicked refresh again.

She had half a mind to reach out to her family in Romania to see if they had a need for a technopagan-ensouled-vampire with a mind for demons and a heart of gold. But she knew better than to contact a family that wanted nothing to do with her.

_Not much of a family then I guess_, she thought to herself.

Jenny couldn’t help but look at the stream of light entering the living room through a skylight in the ceiling. It cascaded across the living room throughout the day as the sun moved, and currently it cast a bright beam just behind the back of the couch. When Jenny moved in with Giles after she got her bearings post-soul restoration, Giles offered to cover it up permanently. An architectural choice was not worth her safety, she remembered him saying. She immediately declined his offer. Sometimes when he wasn’t here, she’d walk right up to the beam of light. She’d stick her hand out, close enough where her fingers were almost bathed in sunlight, and then retract at the last second. It was nice having the illusion normalcy.

Jenny slammed the lid of her laptop in defeat. She held her head in her left hand as she leaned on the back of the couch and let out a long sigh. She never thought she’d get to a point when she missed teaching, especially at Sunnydale High School. When she was there, she always thought of it as a cruel haunted house; a place where book-stealing vampires, zombie football players, and a particularly rat-faced principal lurked in the shadows. Seven months out of work and having to spend it all in literal shadows has changed her mind. All she could remember now was having an entire classroom full of students eager (well, at least _willing_) to learn about computers, a library that captured the awe-inspiring beauty of a west coast sunset, and plenty of broom closets in which to drag a certain librarian into for stolen moments of bliss when no one was looking.

She closed her eyes as she remembered the feeling of Rupert’s lips on her neck, of him pressing her against the utility shelves, of whispering his adoration for her as his fingers crept slowly down-

-Jenny frustratingly and rather haphazardly discarded her laptop on the coffee room table with a thud.

_No use thinking of what we almost did, what we can’t do now_, she thought.

Just then she heard a key unlock the deadbolt of the front door. It opened with urgency as a slightly frantic tweed-clad figure entered the living room.

“Jenny?!” His voice erupted with haste as his briefcase was all but forgotten on the floor near the door. He made a beeline towards the couch where she sat. “I heard a rather loud crash, is everything alright?”

Giles rushed to sit down next to Jenny on the couch and brought his hand to her cheek. It had been 7 months since Jenny had been turned, almost 4 since she had gotten her soul back, yet Rupert still flocked to her as quickly as he could when he sensed there was something wrong. Maybe he thought his attentiveness to her now could somehow prevent what’s already happened to her. Jenny liked to believe it could.

“I’m fine, Rupert,” She said convincingly as she leaned in to greet him with a kiss. Whether or not she was trying to convince him or herself, she didn’t dwell on.

“My web page isn’t getting as much traffic as I hoped it would,” she leaned into his touch.

“Well, it’s still fairly new to start a business on the web, yes? Maybe it just needs more time,” Giles continued to caress her cheek as he looked at her lovingly.

“I guess,” Jenny responded skeptically. “I mean, it’s been a month and suddenly the call for occult help is no more? No one needs an online prayer circle! Nary a bone needs to be cast!” Jenny started to get off the couch when Giles put a hand on her knee to hold her down. They both knew she had more than enough strength to overpower him. It wasn’t unnoticed by Giles when she sat back down.

“Darling, it’s been a slow summer. I feel it would be thoughtless to fail be grateful for such events given that Buffy has only just returned from Los Ang-LA. However, if there is one thing living on the Hellmouth has taught me, it’s that danger is only just around the corner. I’m sure you’ll be getting, er, more _traffic_, soon.”

Jenny leaned her head closer to Rupert and said with a grin, “Are you trying to make me feel better by promising that there’s gonna be a bunch of vampires and demons trying to kills us sometime soon?”

He returned the toothy grin as he stroked her hair, “Precisely. At least I have a girlfriend who I know can more than handle any threat coming our way.”

“You asking me to protect you? How forward thinking of you,” Jenny began to lean in.

“What can I say,” Rupert replied softly as he began to meet her lips, “my girlfriend knows how to take charge.” And then he was kissing her.

Jenny let herself enjoy the illusion for as long as she could. They’ve had to develop strict rules on how far they could actually go before they needed stop. It was one thing to enjoy physical intimacy, it was another to allow passion to take over at the cost of her soul.

As her lips moved against his, she moved her hand unto his thigh and the other into his hair as she let her fingers play with his silky strands. He moaned as his hand fell to her waist and pulled her close as her continued to kiss her. She licked his lips and sighed as he opened his mouth to let her tongue slip inside.

_Screw it_, she thought, _it’s been a shitty day_.

She moved to straddle him on the couch, his hands sliding across her thighs. She leaned down and whispered in a sultry voice she could barely recognize as her own, “This OK?” She was inches from his face, looking deep into his eyes.

“Oh, yes,” he gasped holding her cheek as he reclaimed her mouth with his. He knew they would have to stop soon. This always built too fast between them. A fall out of passion never realized. A quick kiss before heading out to work would turn into desperate necking against the front door and Giles seriously flirting with the idea of asking Willow to keep the soul restoration handy for last minute requests. He knew it was an impossible situation. Unable to consummate a relationship with his live-in girlfriend, a woman he was hopelessly in love with. The only thing more impossible was the thought of letting her go.

Jenny beginning to grind on Rupert’s lap as she sucked a bruise into his neck snapped him back into the moment. He had removed his hands from her thighs and managed to get out a slightly pained, “Moloch,” before he had even realized he’d said it. They thought a mutually agreed upon code word for stopping might make things easier. Giles didn’t know if it did, but he would hate to see how this situation could get much more difficult.

Jenny immediately stilled and leaned up, looking at him with guilt.

“I’m…sorry,” she gasped, lifting herself off of Rupert’s lap and back onto the couch.

He immediately reached for her hands.

“You have nothing to be sorry for, love,” Rupert spoke softly albeit out of breath, kissing her knuckles gently. “All things considered, it’s a wonderful way to be greeted upon coming home.”

Jenny let out an exacerbated laugh. “Yeah, just another reminder about how I can’t be what you deserve.”

That’s when Giles froze. He immediately pulled her hands to his chest, just over his heart, and looked deeply in her eyes.

“Being with you is more than anything I could ever deserve. I love you.”

Jenny’s resolved softened.

She believed him.

“I love you too, England.”

Giles reached in for a gentle kiss. Just as Jenny could feel herself wanting to push it further again, he released her lips and rose from the couch.

“How about I start dinner? Blood sausage, perhaps?” Giles disappeared into the kitchen as Jenny stayed seated on the couch, the same frustration she had before Rupert came home welling up inside her.

Maybe Jenny minded being a vampire more than she thought.


	2. Getting Re-ensouled

Getting re-ensouled isn’t quite as romantic as it sounds. It’s actually quite painful.

Not as painful as _losing_ your soul, but still.

With Spike having kidnapped an unconscious Drusilla, and Buffy and Angelus battling it out in front of a still inactivated Acathla, a vampire wearing Jenny’s face looked at the scene in front of her.

_Well, this is boring_, she thought to herself. Jenny wasn’t very interested in ending the world. Sure, the thought of the balance between good and evil tipping towards demons sounded fun in theory, but she was more interested in seeing Angelus’ vision realized. Human Jenny would have done anything to reign in Angelus’ terror of evil. Vamp Jenny was much more interested in extending his destruction as far as possible.

Family loyalty always drove Jenny Calendar.

However, with Angelus preoccupied with his little girlfriend, Jenny found herself with some free time. Maybe it was time she had some fun of her own before the Earth went tumbling into hell.

“Oh, Rupert! Looks like I’m not quite finished with you,” she mockingly sang as she sauntered towards the back of the mansion.

She took in the sight of him as she leaned in doorway. Rupert Giles was in bad shape. He was doubled over in a chair, hands bound behind his back, shirt partially ripped open, with blood and sweat dripping from his head and fingers. His breath was shallow, but it was there. She was impressed.

_Who knew the old librarian had stamina_, she thought to herself with pleasure. Jenny honestly didn’t know how much more he could take, but she grinned thinking of how entertaining it would be to find out.

Sensing her presence, Giles slowly lifted his head.

“What more do you want from me?” Giles managed to whisper with defeat.

“Oh, don’t worry, babe,” Jenny spoke slowly as he tried to focus his eyes on her. “None of us have much time left.”

“Well, good,” he breathed out as he let his head fall back, trying to readjust himself against his restraints as best he could. “I’m not overly fond of your company.”

“Oh, England. That hurts my feelings,” Jenny faked a pout as she slowly stepped into the room. “That’s no way to speak to a lover.” She knelled down next to him as she ran her hand up his open shirt, across his face, and through his hair. She whispered in his ear, her lips brushing his skin, “Well, I guess we weren’t lovers, but we were so close, weren’t we?” She placed a soft kiss on his ear.

Giles knew it wasn’t her. It couldn’t be. His Jenny was dead. He had been reminding himself as such since the moment he woke up in the mansion. He knew they would try to exploit his grief of loosing Jenny. He knew he needed to be strong, resist the urge to believe he could have her back, that they could be together. But he had already failed to remember that earlier and told Jenny how Angelus could awaken Acathla. What did it matter now? The Earth was doomed regardless. Why not give into the illusion?

Giles lifted his head and tried his best to focus. Even with the room spinning, he could make out her brown eyes against the dark room.

“I wanted so much for us. I wanted us to be lovers, to be together. I don’t know how to move past this,” he said with a dry throat, tears spilling from his eyes.

“Oh Rupert, and you think you deserve that?” Jenny cocked her head, feigning interest, continuing to softly brush his hair with her fingers.

Giles closed his eyes. “No, but I had hoped -”

Jenny roughly grabbed his hair and pulled his head back. He cried out in anguish as she leaned in closer, her lips brushing his cheek.

“Oh, you had hoped? What a _useless_ feeling for you to have,” she spoke with venom has she sneered at him.

“There’s no hope for you, for me, for us,” she grabbed his hair tighter. His breath sped up as he cried out in pain.

With his neck completely bare, exposed, Jenny thought having one last drink from the pathetic man in front of her was the perfect way to welcome hell on Earth.

“Look at me,” she commanded slowly. Giles managed to fight against the pain and pry his lids open.

He looked in horror as he saw his beloved Jenny in full vamp mode.

“We’ll never be together; not after you could let this happen to me.”

Jenny opened her mouth and began to bite down on Giles’ neck when she heard a clatter behind her. She quickly turned around but before she could investigate, one Xander Harris was already mid-swing with a baseball bat speeding towards her face.

“God, there are _so_ many other teachers I would have rather done that to,” she heard the boy say to himself as she regained her composure on the floor. By the time Jenny was able to get to her feet, Xander was already finished untying the knots around Giles’s hands and feet.

“Ya know what, Xander, I’ve had it up to here with your immature bullshit,” she was quickly closing the distance the boy who was helping to prop up a barely conscious Giles. “It’s time - ”

Suddenly, Jenny froze as she felt something clawing its way through her body. It felt foreign, ugly, cloying; it felt like something that had been deep within her, locked away, was finally emerging. Fighting to break free of the cage it had been confined to. It felt as though it was spreading through her veins, contaminating every part of her body, slowly taking over her last bit of control– it felt like something _good_.

“Oh my god,” Xander said to himself as he looked at her with wide eyes, still trying to keep a fading Giles up and conscious. Jenny threw her head back and her arms out as a beam of light went through her.

“Giles, hey, Giles, stay with me, you’re gonna wanna see this,” Xander said as he gently shook the man. Giles managed to look up just in time to see Jenny snap her head forward, light beaming in her eyes before she fell to floor with a gasp.

Later, when a conscious Giles and re-ensouled Jenny were discussing the events of that evening, Giles recalled knowing he was out of it. Hours of torture and dehydration does that to a man. But he does remember the last thought he had before blacking out was wondering if it was possible that Willow could do such a foolish thing. Giles grabbed Jenny’s hand as he told her he was desperately thankful she had.

Xander wasn’t quite sure he could believe what he just saw, but he was pretty sure he just saw his best friend re-ensoul their favorite teacher right in front of his eyes. He thought about how before he had left the hospital, he had convinced Willow to first re-ensoul Ms. Calendar before she tried with Angel. He told her it was because Buffy could handle Angelus, they weren’t sure if Giles would be able to take on a vamp Jenny. But Xander knew it was because he wanted Angel to die. A better chance for Ms. Calendar getting her soul back was a happy bonus.

“What is going on,” Jenny managed to get out between gasps, attempting to regain her breathing and steadying herself back unto her feet. “Where the hell am I?”

Xander quickly shifted Giles in his arms so he could walk over and lean down to Jenny.

“Ms. Calendar,” he said with panicked confidence, “we gotta go, _now_.” He quickly grabbed her arm to pull her up, and helped to carry both her and Giles out of the mansion. As the group stumbled past Buffy and Angelus - now fighting in front of a fully awakened Acathla - Xander wondered if he made the right choice in advising Willow. He decided that having Ms. Calendar back was worth it, and vowed to never think of it again.

Jenny remembered the panic of not being able to form a linear timeline of events in her memory. Last she remembered, Angelus had her in his grip at the school, his teeth in her neck, draining her life. Now, she was huddled on the ground with an anxious Xander and a clearly very injured Giles outside of Angelus’ mansion. Her focus on trying to remember how she had gotten there vanished as she realized Rupert didn’t appear awake. She scurried to his side.

“Rupert, baby?” Jenny said panicked and hurriedly, kneeling next to Rupert, holding his face, willing him to look at her. He didn’t make a sound.

Jenny was about to start shaking him when memories started to resurface….Jenny laughing with Angelus as she recounted the story of leaving love letters for Giles in the library…waiting for Giles at his apartment the night they were to reconcile, only to reveal her true vampiric form when he leaned in to kiss her…torturing Giles for hours only earlier that evening…

Jenny immediately threw herself back unto the ground, propping her body up with her arms behind her, frantically trying to catch her breath.

“No, no, no, please no,” she began to violently sob looking up at Xander, pleading for him to make this make sense. To be able to explain what was happening without confirming what she already knew to be true. That she was a vampire.

The last thing she remembered before passing out for the night was Xander rather unconvincingly whispering, “Ms. Calendar, it’s ok. It’s going to be ok. Trust me, this is all gonna work out…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I listened to the Cruel Intentions soundtrack while writing this. Good soundtrack.


	3. Chapter 3

They had been fighting more lately.

Not about big things. The big things they had a decent grasp on. For instance, Jenny was the first to admit that she had a hard time parsing out the difference between her partner being annoyed with a behavior of hers and total character assassination. An annoyed Rupert asking her to remember to please sign off the internet so that their phone line wasn’t constantly unavailable somehow felt like he was saying she was The Most Inconsiderate Person to Walk the Earth. Once Jenny realized that her boyfriend could in fact think the world of her and also be so annoyed that she never did dishes because they “need to soak,” their relationship seemed to even out.

For a time.

Now it seemed like any little thing set the other off. Rupert didn’t heat up her pig’s blood enough? They argued until they didn’t speak to each other for the entire weekend. Jenny left a slew of diskettes on the coffee table? Rupert spent the night on the couch. They both seemed to be aware of the absurdity of their situation, yet, they both seemed wildly incapable of fixing it.

Luckily, today seemed like it was going to be a good day.

Giles was sitting on the couch wearing a casual sweater with jeans, Jenny’s legs lazily strewn across his lap. His eyes crinkled with laughter as he stroked her legs. Jenny’s head was thrown back in laugher as well.

“You cannot be serious, Jenny!” Giles managed to get out between chuckles.

“I swear!” Jenny crossed her heart and held her hand up in honor; she reached for her wine on the table as her laugh subsided. Although she missed the taste of such delicacies as McDonald’s and In-and-Out, she was grateful vampires could still enjoy booze.

“I walked right up to my headmaster, clad only in my bra and underwear, and said in the most mature voice that I could muster at 17, ‘You bet your ass that I started that protest! Girls should be able to wear pants as part of our uniform if we want!’ He honestly did not know what to say!” Jenny’s story was punctuated with laughter from Giles as he listened to his girlfriend’s indecorous and quite brilliant adolescent behavior.

“He must have quickly given into your demands, dear,” Giles let out as he wiped away a tear from his eye, still chuckling softly to himself.

“Oh god no! He immediately called my Uncle Enyos and had me taken home for the semester. God, that was an awful winter,” she recalled as she took another sip of her wine. These Saturday afternoons, stolen hours away spent with just each other, relaxed, together on the couch really did make up for the evenings of petty fights they seemed to be getting in more often lately.

_Misplaced tension_, Jenny thought to herself as she finished off her glass and reached for the bottle to pour what she had dubbed a “movie pour” worth of wine.

“Yes, well, knowing your family, I cannot imagine they were too forgiving,” Giles said with ease as he finished his glass and took the bottle from Jenny’s hand, ready to empty it.

Jenny felt the prick of an insult. She recoiled her legs up to her chest and pushed herself up so she was sitting more erect.

“Well, I was a kid, so of course they were understanding,” Jenny spoke candidly, not trying very hard to hide her annoyance.

Giles could sense her aggravation as he paused and took a moment to compose himself. When it came to Jenny’s family, he knew to tread lightly. He knew the balance: be supportive regarding her disappoint and hurt with how they’re treated her since she became a vampire, but never actively criticize them himself. He may have stepped too far over the line.

Giles cleared his throat and tried to sound as civil as possible, “Quite right, as they should, I only meant - ”

“I mean, that was a big deal to my family. Getting thrown out of boarding school? I can understand their frustration with me.” Jenny was becoming actively more agitated as she brushed the hair that escaped her messy bun behind her ears.

“Darling, I did not mean any offense, I only meant -”

“I know what you meant. It would just be nice if I could tell a story about my family without you needing to take a jab at them.” Jenny had fully retreated into herself, knees up near her chin as she held her legs. Giles was desperate to salvage the day. He knew if he just apologized, said he did not mean to insinuate any negativity towards her family, but just to comment on the story, there was a chance for peace.

Frankly, he was tired of backtracking his disdain for how these people treated the love of his life.

He took a moment to compose himself. Then decisively, placed his wine glass down on the table.

“I’m sorry, Jenny, but I have yet to hear a single story about your family where they treat you with any kindness or respect, regardless of your age and circumstance. It’s difficult for me to empathize with those who always seem to hurt you so dearly,” Giles looked down, he could not make eye contact with her. He knew saying that meant another fight, but he didn’t regret it. Standing up for what he believed in, which in this case was the value of one Jenny Calendar, was fundamentally more important.

He’d defend her. Come hell or high water.

Jenny was looking at him, eyes wide and her mouth agape. With a frustrated scoff, she set her wine glass on the coffee room table next to his and stood up. She walked around to the back of the couch, careful to avoid the afternoon beam of light filtering through the skylight unto the back of the couch and floor beneath. Even being indoors, Jenny was constantly reminded that she wasn’t really human.

“Ya know,” she began, her head down, bracing herself with both hands on the back of the couch. “I appreciate you always looking out for me and having my back, but stuff with my family is wildly complicated. The same curse they used to torture the vampire who destroyed their _legacy_ has been used upon one of their own, I don’t expect them to suddenly be ok with me.” She lifted her head, the exacerbation almost tangible.

“Jenny,” Giles said tentatively placing his glasses on the table as well, rubbing his eyes, wanting to get through this with as much ease as possible. He spoke softly.

“I know that, love. I just…I just think you deserve better.” He finally was able to look at her, and he stared with soft eyes.

Jenny practically laughed.

“Better? I failed in every way possible with them!” She threw her hands up in frustration. She glanced down at the desk behind the couch. Adorned with a Tiffany’s lamp and other ancient relics and mystical nick-knacks, the desk also held several unopened letters addressed to Jenny from her family. She hadn’t been able to open any of them. So much for gaining super-human strength when you become a vampire.

She leaned over, just avoiding the sunlight streaming through, to grab the latest parcel.

“And now, I won’t even open the correspondences I get from them! Seems to me they have a whole lot to be upset over.” She held the small package, staring at it, willing it to give her the peace she so desperately needed.

That’s when Giles rose and walked around the couch. He was almost flush with her when he tried to take her hands. She quickly recoiled and held on tighter to the parcel. He held his breath and his hands momentarily in the air, hopelessly unsure as what to do, and then landed them on her arms tentatively, lightly stroking them up and down hoping to convey his affection.

He tried to speak softly with love, but the words tumbled out of his mouth with frustration.

“Love, opening that will do you no good!”

Jenny didn’t want to hear it. She didn’t want to listen to someone else about what she should or shouldn’t do. Listening to others and putting their desires above her own had led her to a life where she had to avoid wooden T’s and the California sun.

It was time to do what she wanted. Even if it meant facing a harsh reality she wanted to pretend wasn’t real.

“No, no, let’s see what the old family has to say, huh?” Jenny said, biting with sarcasm as she began to tear open the parcel. She dumped the contents into her hand to reveal a single piece of rolled parchment and a small pouch wrapped in old, gold fabric. It fit in the palm of Jenny’s hand and felt as though it held some sort of liquid.

Giles moved his hands, wavering, and finally reached out to hold her hands, trying to convey the competing emotions he felt. He wanted to apologize for yet again causing another fight. He wanted to hold her because he knew how deeply her family’s disdain for her grieved her. He wanted to kiss her full of promise, to show her how much he loved her. He wanted to whisper in her ear that he knew this situation was challenging, but that she was the greatest thing to ever happen to him.

He didn’t know what he should do.

So he stammered, and held her hands, the parchment and pouch between their joined palms. He held her gaze, green eyes holding brown, and he let himself be honest.

“Darling, what could this possibly be? What could they possibly send you to make up for the absolute abuse they’ve put you through? What? _What do you want?!_”

Later, when recalling the incident, Giles couldn’t remember exactly what he expected from this outburst. He remembers being satisfied that finally, and without an agenda, had asked her what she was hoping for from her family, but he certainly didn’t expect what came next.

As soon as Giles finished his exclamation, he squeezed Jenny’s hands in his, hoping to ground her, to keep her there in the moment with him, to prove to her that he did in fact want her to answer the question. In between their hands, however, was still a yet to be ascertained liquid-filled pouch. As soon as he squeezed their hands, the pouch broke, quickly releasing a green goo between their hands.

The sudden and unexpected mess broke the tension.

They separated as Giles looked at his hand in disgust, and Jenny looked in curiosity. It was quite viscous. What was more remarkable, though, was how bright it began to shine on Jenny’s palm. As Giles began to wipe the substance away on his jeans, cursing to himself under his breath, Jenny watched in wonder as the green mixture seemed to dissolve into the flesh of her palm.

“Oh no,” she said with familiar panic as she looked up into Giles’ eyes pleadingly. She felt a painful shock shoot straight from her palm up through her arm and into her entire body. She would never forget the pain of having her soul forced back inside of her body. While this wasn’t quite it, it also wasn’t far off.

She immediately fell to her knees, clutching her hands into tight fists, and doubled over. Giles immediately met her on the floor, one hand on her hip and another on her head. He was gently stroking her hair, softly saying her name.

“Jenny, love, what is it?” He desperately searched her face for answers, willing her to be alright.

Suddenly, her head shot up towards the sky, her mouth agape. Giles fell back as a bright light deep within Jenny boiled up, projecting itself through her entire body, and beamed out of her face. Just as it burned white hot, it exited her body.

She fell back, panting heavily, trying to catch her breath. It was not a familiar feeling.

As she regained control over her body, she began to gasp desperately, licking her lips, trying to regulate her breathing. She felt as though she would never be able to stop breathing so quickly.

Giles was still on his knees in front of her, out of breath himself. He held his hands out, hovering around her, attempting to protect her from any additional foreign element in their immediate vicinity.

That’s when his eyes drifted and he noticed where her left hand had landed on the floor to catch herself. He was petrified.

“Jenny…” He spoke delicately, almost afraid.

She was still trying to calm the spinning. One moment, she had been fighting with Rupert - which was the last thing she wanted to be doing with him - and the next, it felt as though she was almost passing out from a lack of oxygen, felt as though there was a rhythm in her chest, a drum beating with a cadence that sparked life. She knew of course-

“Jenny…”

She thought she could hear Rupert saying her name between thoughts, but she couldn’t quite parse out the sound. She was about at capacity, experiencing sensory overload when-

“_Jenny!_”

She was able to focus, zoom in on Rupert’s face, hone in on his soft green eyes. She followed his gaze which was focused down unto her left hand, which was stabling herself on the floor.

In the direct beam of light from the Saturday afternoon sun bursting through the skylight.

Jenny looked upon her hand in disbelief as it continued to not burst into flames. As she attempted to catch her breath and feel the pace of the thump in her chest slow, she felt the warm rays heat up her hand. She had no idea how. She had no idea why. But she knew in her gut what was happening.

She looked back up at Rupert and immediately recognized the gears turning.

“What’s happened?” She said between gasps, trying to stay as objective as possible. There was no way this was actually happening. She needed Rupert to ground her back to reality which was never this kind.

He began to think out loud in shock. “Green viscous liquid, you were dead, you’re breathing now, and your able to survive in sunlight,” he brought his hand up to check her pulse, to confirm what he already knew to be true. “I think…I think the pouch contained the blood of a Mohra demon, which means…”

“I’m _alive_.” She finished for him.

“_Yes_.”

Jenny knew that they needed to think. To take time and ascertain what had actually happened given the dramatics of the last several minutes. They needed to confirm their theory. That she really was alive with no chance of losing her soul. They needed to be absolutely sure, before they did anything crass.

However.

Rupert Giles was a man of carefully calculated decisions. Putting the greater good above his own needs was his mode of operation. However, even given the absolute remote possibility he and Jenny could have a happy ending, even the slightest of chances, he’d call you a fool to expect he’d do anything other than go all in.

Rupert moved his hand from her pulse to the back of her head and pulled her in for a hard kiss.

She immediately met his lips with equal passion, wrapping her arms around him, deepening the kiss, feeling him pulse beneath her. He was alive. _She_ was alive. He kissed her back, hungry, desperate to occupy the same space as her. Willing his body to mold to hers.

He was hers. That’s all he ever wanted.

His other arm snaked behind her waist, pulling her to him as he carefully brought them both to their feet.

_Waiting is for the dead_, she thought.

“I want you; I _need_ you, babe,” she was able to whisper between kisses, her voice dripping with lust. This almost didn’t feel real. Felt like a dream, the kind of dream she’d had a hundred times since she got her soul back. The kind of dream she hated to wake up from. But this _was_ real. His hands on her head and waist, grounding her, holding her down.

“I want you,” Rupert managed to gasp as she began an assault on his neck, licking away the sweat. He closed his eyes and held her tight against him as he found the will to move them towards the stairs. He had to get them to their bed.

As soon as his feet hit the first stair, her hands moved down to the hem of his sweater and began to pull it up over his head. He wasn’t thrilled with the idea of taking his hands off of her for any reason, but he quickly responded by removing his sweater and depositing it on the floor. As she held him to her by his waist, he hands found her cheeks as he held her head. They both were gasping for breath as they looked into each other’s eyes. The intensity of the moment lent itself to the enjoyment of their absolute happiness as they began to smile, leaning their foreheads together.

“I love you,” she said ardently.

He gazed down at her, drawn in completely. Nothing was ever this important.

“Jenny, I love you,” her soft laugh was met with one of his own as he recaptured her mouth with his. He held her to him as they clumsily made their way up the stairs, kissing. He reached for her t-shirt as she pulled it off with ease, dropping it to the floor below their loft with a smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ya'll. I watched Halloween (1978) and Halloween (2018) the last two nights, both for the first time and they are *perfect* in every way. Jamie Lee deserves several Oscars.


End file.
